unless I want to get arrested this is
about as close as I'm gonna get to
Rikers Island the mass of a notorious
New York City Jail in 2003 it was a
sight of an improbable crime an art
heist
a drawing my Spanish surrealist Salvador
Dali was stolen out of one of the jails
but the accused were not he'd expect for
Inside Edition calm I'm Sal bono and
this is New York gritty what's a dolly
doing on Rikers and Salvador Dali was
supposed to come visit the inmates in
the 60s couldn't make it
that's sick or something and so he dope
donated one of his drawings called the
crucifixion to me it looked like a
drawing that he didn't about the minute
half my son curbs honor probably but in
Salvador Dali and you know the abstract
and the sublime and all the things that
Salvador Dali brings was represented to
a degree in that drawer
so the doughy was the Catalonian a
Spaniard who was one of the great great
Surrealists of our time
he believed that publicity was more
important than quality so that the
memory that many of us have of him is as
a clown a man who would ride an elephant
do things like that day just to get
publicity Southold Ali was a strange man
in that sense every once in a while he
did religious work as his crucifixions
of Christ
marvelous paint his Last Supper is a
masterpiece
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in 1981 one inmate apparently didn't
like the salary and through a metal
coffee mug at the drawing breaking the
glass and staining the portrait the
dolly was taken down and placed in
storage hidden from view and it was
placed in the basement or something and
water got on it so that if you've ever
seen paper that's been in the water
ordinary water it becomes more to stain
from the metal that's in the water and
that's what happened to that piece while
the piece languished in a basement its
artist Salvador Dali died in 1989 he was
84 by the late 1990s the drawing was
back on display at Rikers hanging in a
lobby next to a Pepsi machine its value
had been appraised for over a million
dollars in order to determine an artist
greatness you have to wait till he's
dead his dealers there his wife is dead
his mistress is dead and a five-year-old
child walks into the museum and says
mommy I like that that's the first real
criticism and that way has been the
subject about
in the middle of a cold night on March
1st 2003 an unplanned fire joel took
place inside the jail
2,000 inmates were put on lockdown the
next morning a prison employee who
prayed in front of the drawing noticed
something was wrong
someone had swapped the drawing with a
replica when you first learned of a
heist at Rikers Island in March 2003
what were your initial thoughts I
thought it was a joke I found it very
hard to believe the area where the
painting was moved to after was
vandalized
by the inmates in the mess hall was the
front gate area but it was an officer's
fine 24 hours a day I sat down with Mike
Caruso the former inspector general for
the Department of Corrections he didn't
want to be on camera
so with his permission I recorded our
conversation inside a cafe in Queens I
can't remember many occasions where a
jail was actually robbed of anything
this type of value though you might see
isolated incidents with some money
disappeared out of they made funds or
bail accounts but in my 27 years in that
office I don't remember anything like
this it was gonna be a major issue
because I knew the painting did have
pretty high value to it how about the
absurdity of all this stuff well there
is that
it's it's kind of a Hollywood type caper
but the replica is actually very good in
a lot of ways and I suppose they thought
would keep people fooled for at least
long enough for them to dispose of the
real of the real painting in the black
market it was a security camera there
however no tape was recovered from the
security camera unplanned fire drill
the missing security tape that detailed
fake they let Mike to one conclusion and
I knew that it had to be an inside job
so that was gonna be a problem
and when the Salvador Dali painting was
stolen from Rikers Island from an area
where officers must be buzzed in and out
well suspicion fell on corrections
officers at the prison particularly
those with enough authority to stage
fire drills because the day before it
was learned that a phony was put in
place of the actual painting there was
such a drill and now investigators are
wondering if the drill was a cover
there was a bogus fire drill that was
called the night of the theft the
purpose of it was to clear the area of
the non participants in the scheme so
that the participants in this game could
do their thing that night which was to
bring in the fake painting for prison
guards found themselves no better than
some of the inmates they were guarding
arrested were assistant deputy warden
Ben e-news Oh assistant deputy warden
Mitchell Huck Hauser corrections officer
Timothy Pina and corrections officer
Greg Sokol wearing the sunglasses and
walking in by himself it turns out
because he flipped went against the
others and secretly recorded
conversations for investigators all were
on duty when the painting was taken that
night his crime as a result of shameless
arrogance fueled by greed that it
represents a serious betrayal of the
public trust but also undermines the
professionalism of the vast majority of
the correction department employees who
perform their duties with dedication and
integrity
I mean investigating officers always
difficult because they are small peace
officers that uphold the law to provide
care custody and control for the inmates
that they oversee
this would be the last thing you would
expect that they would be the actual
subject City investigation you know when
you think about this was not exactly the
most brilliant caper of all time there
were so many things I was done here that
made you realize they didn't plan this
out well they stole a dolly that's
unique every piece of our journey but
particularly a dolly joram this is Fred
unique it was gonna be reported stolen
it was going to be put out in the art
world as a stolen piece to many
authorities this seemed like an
open-and-shut case three the defendants
pled guilty to second-degree grand
larceny
and received different sentences however
Betty news oh who authorities claimed
was the mastermind of the plot wasn't
backing down without a fight
Betty called me and said look I'm
indicted I'm innocent
I want to go to trial and I want you so
you already had some you know very macro
level knowledge of the case from the
newspapers I was certainly interested in
the case and it was a challenge that I
thought would be stimulating whispered
that way prosecutors said the drawing
was valued at over $250,000 that could
have meant a maximum sentence of 15
years if news was found guilty if the
stolen goods are under $50,000
defendants are given a maximum seven
years behind bars as a trial lawyer as a
lawyer the best work you can do is in
mitigation you know you're not going to
get a clean sweep perhaps but you know
instead of him facing you know 8 and 30
to 25 you know or 7 to 21 you know you
hope to get him into the zone where he's
eligible for probation that was one
school of thought but that was a my
school my school of thought as always if
you're in it you want to win it try
working there's like a combat sport to
me and
you know he told me it was innocent taka
pina brought in Alex Rosenberg to
testify in court in an effort to contest
the value of the draw the same reason
they wanted their expert to place the
value of this piece of art over fifty
thousand dollars Alex were there to
shred the value of that Valley and there
was nobody better in the world not in
the state of New York not in America but
in the world to put proper value to a
Salvador Dali painting out Rosenberg was
publicist at one point he was one of his
best friends
he is the dahle you know savate and he
set the vashu at this thing at a much
more realistic number which was closer
to zero than 50,000 but certainly well
below the thresholds for grand larceny
I'm still trying to process the fact
that like there's a Salvador the drawing
Salvador Dali drawing that under a
hundred thousand dollars many drawings
are under hundred thousand many and also
we must remember when I'm saying is I'm
speaking about there's certainly time
for in two thousand three dollars not
twenty that's right and twenty twenty
dollars Alex Rosenberg dropped a
bombshell during the trial he claimed
that the Dali drawing sold in 2003 was
actually a reprint and not the original
at all you had testified in court that
it wasn't the original drawing is that
correct that is correct so what so what
was taken in 2003 apparently a copy
because the photo of what was taken
didn't show the water damage and that
original drawing that Dali had given
Rikers was never restored no but you see
because the authorities didn't take it
seriously remember the people work in
prisons are usually not art collectors
so what happened to the original Dali
Jerome we don't know no one has any idea
no one know so they stole a replica
that's right they took a fake has
replaced it with their own fake that's
right
so there's technically three versions of
one drawing and the original is still
missing the original the copy and the
fake
yeah he brought that out a trial also
that this was a copy of crouppen a copy
and here's the funny part there was
nobody to help because the the pictures
of the drawing that they had were behind
glass okay and and you can't do even a
hypothetical assessment
okay there's there's there's ways to
assess art you look at you feel you
touch it you evaluate it look for damage
if you don't have the piece of art and
you only have pictures of it it's called
the hypothetical assessment okay it's
valid as what would you put the word
hypothetical before assessment following
a four-week trial the jury acquitted
news oh this was one the most
interesting case I've ever tried because
I really became an expert in part and
evaluation process of art and Salvador
Dali who I became a massive fan of after
this case following the guilty pleas
Saul Cole was given three years
probation and had to pay a $1,000 fine
Pina was sentenced to five years
probation
while Hawk Hauser was given one to three
years in prison in regards to the
individual that was acquitted you have
to respect the decision of the jury
that's the way the system works the only
thing I didn't understand is why the
other individuals that were found guilty
would implicate this person this ranks
in the top five of the most challenging
cases I've ever tried from an
evidentiary standpoint for sure this
definitely ranks as my favorite case
I've ever tried because it wasn't just a
criminal trial it wasn't a he said she
said it was a criminal trial with you
know the focal point being Salvador Dali
the Salvador Dali drawing has never been
found
the guards claimed the artwork was
destroyed we did the best we could
exhausted all investigative avenues I
still feel that the painting is out
there
I would suggest if anyone knows where it
is that they contact Department of
Correction inspector general's office
all I think there's a few morals to the
story one would be you know
well don't steal but if you're gonna
commit a crime if you're gonna steal a
dolly replace it with something that is
released within you know four feet of
the same size of it so it doesn't look
clear that thing was stolen and then you
know just keep your mouth closed you
know that's the the moral of here you
know bent on crime if you're headed in
that direction
Benny News I'll decline to participate
in the story but he told me he was open
to meeting up with the three other
guards if there were ever inclined to do
so
Gregory Sokol and Mitchell hock houses
declined to participate while messages
left for Timothy Pino went unanswered
you were very close with dolly during
his life what would Salvador Dali say
about this whole situation in the left
big joke
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